Sometimes I amaze myself.

[Cp1965]

It hasn't been a good week in many ways, work, weather and general stuff has stopped me from doing much all week. I've only been running once since Sunday, so last night I made the conscious decision to get out this morning and see if I could do 40 minutes, after all I've already done a couple of 34 minute sessions.

So, turn off Ms Strava's distance prompts, set the countdown timer on my phone for 40 minutes, 5 minute warm up walk, fire up the "sad old goth" playlist on Spotify and off we go.

Quite a few more runners about this morning, probably celebrating my particular area of Leicester's first day out of lockdown! I must be looking the part now, seem to be getting more unsolicited waves from other runners... obviously hydrating well last night helped as I was well into the groove when my tracker buzzed a 10 minute warning. I knew I'd done about a mile, so happy with my pace.

Pretty uneventful other than having to dodge a gaggle of geese (doesn't seem long ago that they were newly hatched chicks!), 30 minute alert goes just as I'm about to turn for the homeward leg, so I decided to do a bit of a loop round the picnic area. Already psyched up for over 5k, the worst that can happen is that I have to walk a bit further at the end...

The alarm on my phone finally goes off, slow down, stop Strava... 6.13k including a PR for 5k! What the actual... must have been going far quicker than I thought I was to clock that distance! Still a bit gobsmacked at that, obviously I'm fitter than I thought, and it kind of makes up for being overtaken by someone a good 10 years older than me... 😁

[Jillybean0141 Graduate]

Wow, I'm in awe. That's fantastic!

[Cp1965 Graduate in reply to Jillybean0141]

Thank you, in hindsight I'm quite pleased with it, was seriously dischuffed at being overtaken by a bloke well in his 60s mind you 🤣

[linzi7478 Graduate]

Loved reading your post, that is amazing, well done! A great achievement and inspiration to get out and push the distance up a bit! I've got too used to doing shorter runs. 3/4k and want to push myself to do more! So this is the kind of post I need to motivate me😂👍

[Cp1965 Graduate in reply to linzi7478]

I've sort of tried to hover round the 5k mark since graduating apart from one shorter run (when the weather wasn't in my favour anyway), time now to start pushing myself a bit I think and see what this ageing body can actually do after 40 years of abuse 🤣

[Dtay1978 Graduate]

Excellent work, great pace, now I’m a tad jealous 😊

[Cp1965 Graduate in reply to Dtay1978]

I'm sure you're not that far off my pace, to be honest I've found that preparation seems to be the key, preparing the night before by hydrating and also mentally. My slowest times seem to be on the "I'm awake, may as well go for a run" days...